I've recently purchased an older Ural bike and sidecar. I like it a lot but would like something newer for reliability. I have a Yamaha Royal Star Tour Deluxe. I'm thinking about putting the Ural sidecar and sidecar frame on the Royal Star. I know that DMC sells the mounts. My question is how would a large bike like a Royal Star work with a Ural sidecar? Also would it be harder to steer than the Ural is? How much should I budget for mounting the sidecar to the bike? Paintwork would be additional.
It would work very well providing you have a proper link up and it is adjusted properly.
By link up do you mean attachment to the bike frame? Or some type of steering stabilizer?
Any bike you add a sidecar is going to steer harder then the Ural unless you modify the steering. The trail on a Ural is set up so that it can be ridden both with and with out a sidecar which means that it does not have enough trail to be a good two wheeled motorcycle and it has more trail then would be ideal for a three wheeled motorcycle.
Steering modifications are done to reduce trail on the front of the bike lowering the steering effort. It does not matter what bike you mount the sidecar to, the answer is going to be the same. Bikes designed for use as two wheeled motorcycles will have more trail then is ideal for a three wheel motorcycle.
Some people think that if a bike has a lot of "Rake" that it will make a good sidecar bike, these people are confusing rake and trail. I often (pretty much daily) have to explain that when triple tree's are used to reduce trail it is NOT RAKEING it may look like you have changed the rake but you have not. The rake would need to be changed at the steering head and would have little real world effect on trail and as such not help much with steering effort.
As the Ural is a very heavy sidecar and a very strong sidecar it would work well on a larger bike like yours.
I know we have gone over this in emails but as lots of people read these posts for many years (I still get calls from a tire post from 12 years ago)
A Ural motorcycle with out a sidecar has a very limited market to the point where it really is worth scrap value or you will have to part it out.
The bike side mounts for most bikes run $725 from us. On the Ural you need to cut off the lower front mount and weld in a new lower front mount and weld in a new lower rear mount further forward and change all of the lower mounts over to our "boss and clamp" set up. This runs another $430 in parts so you will have $1155 in parts to mount the Ural sidecar to your bike. If you could sell your Ural for $5000 as a running sidecar rig and as you will not be able to get much for the bike figure that the sidecar is costing you $5000, Add the $1155 in parts and you are now up to what you could buy one of our made in the USA sidecars that come with the bike specific mounts. Then you want to paint the sidecar, so you must prep and paint a used sidecar which if you take a close look at the stock Ural the body is any thing but straight. With a new sidecar you can order it painted to match your bike. My first choice on your bike would be our M72C or the wider M72CX or even the Expedition mounted on the M72CX chassis. The M72C looks very much like the Ural but sits lower which many feel looks better on a bike like yours. Its trunk not only locks unlike the Ural it even is sealed against rain. It runs either an automotive or motorcycle wheel with an optional disk brake. When you hook up the Ural you will more then likely not be hooking up its drum brake. And these sidecars even offer electric trim as an option. Electric trim raises or lowers the sidecars suspension while riding which in turn trims pull out caused by road, load and weather conditions. On a tight budget our M72B also works however it does not sit down low like the M72C and has fewer options and standard features which is how we are able to sell it for $1500 less then the M72C.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
866-638-1793
www.dmcsidecars.com
Hi HD Hank here although some folks seem to dislike Harleys---one thing they came up with back in the day was adjustable trees Gave you the ability to go from solo to hack mode in about 10 minutes. I adapted a set to my FXR and really like 'em. Just another good idea lost to "so called progress" and time.
